A Mercenary's Journal
by dawnvalley
Summary: Many years had passed since the last mutant alive. All the DNA leftovers of the mutants had been destroyed, except for one laboratory, the JazCorp. The laboratory had been trying to create next level enhanced humans. This story is about Genesis "Gene" Grayson who was one of the enhanced human that was working with the S.R.S (Special Rogue Squad) and how he dealt with his past.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

"Hey, little Jamie, wake up, wake up boy"

"Wake up dear"

As Jamie opened his eyes, the shadow of his mother and father appeared, and a smile smirked within his face. His little hands grabbed his father's face. But then,

"Wake up, shithead!" the young figure suddenly replaced Jamie's mom and dad, waking up the 12-year-old Jamie Stories

"What are you doing, man!?"

"Don't you remember what you got to do today?"

"What?" Jamie murmured while he regained his conscience.

"Wake up, we're going to help Uncle Gene prepare the newspaper stand, idiot!"

"Oh, dammit, what time is it Al?"

"Already half past six! C'mon, help me put the newspapers on the cart!"

The 16-year-old Albert pulled Jamie from his bed; force Jamie to help him carry the newspapers.

The two youngsters were pulling the cart in a quiet road in the morning. Their newspaper stand is just a few blocks away, and they could already see their uncle standing near it. But Jamie's focus is not on his uncle; his eyes set to the pedestrians that were walking past him, an adult woman and a girl, wearing dark and black clothes. When Jamie tried to forget what he just saw, and looked away to his uncle, he had a strange feeling. His uncle's eyes are fixed to those two women. Shock, nerve, and curiosity could be seen in his uncle's face. His cigarette easily slipped from his mouth, leaving that confused face of him. On this day, Jamie knew something happened between his uncle and those two women. Still, Jamie had never asked about this day. But, on this day too, little Jamie realized that he never knew the stories and mysteries behind his Uncle Gene, his Brother Albert, and even himself.


	2. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

Click! The sound of a camera taking a photo, Jamie looked at his camera to search the file to check if the photo is good enough. "A good quality photo" he said in his mind. Sadly, it's a photo of a dead man body in an alley of the city. "View like this becomes more and more usual." he sighed.

After taking a few snapshots of the victims, Jamie wrapped up his camera and put it in his bag. The other reporters were still taking a longer time to take the photo. The news reporter said to the camera energetically. There are also some detectives and police analyzing the situation. Usually, Jamie is enthusiastic about cases like these, but he seemed a bit off those days. "Well, the sightseeing's over, better give these to the old man." he said.

The city is a bit foggy this morning. Jamie walked slower than usual, and more carefully. The view of the street is a bit sad and pathetic. There were too many empty shops and unused buildings on the side. He remembered how the city used to be, especially in this place, the one with a lot of joy, not the one with this fading atmosphere. This street brought back too many memories for him. Of course, he used to live on this place.

* * *

An old man was sitting in his chair, leaned on his back, his hair short and a bit graying. He has a thin grey beard covering his lower face, the other things that you could see in his face besides his facial hair was his scar. There was a long scar on his left cheek. His eyes are very sharp for a man in his age. Surprisingly, his body is very fit, not like the other old men in the country, which either thin or fat. Strong features surrounded his body. He wore a formal shirt, formal pants, and a suspender that connected them.

The coffee was on the table, the cigarette in his mouth, and a newspaper is on his hand. "Keane Massacre: What Would You Do Fifteen Years Ago?" that's the headline he read. While he was starting to continue the reading, one of his workers interrupted him.

"Mr. Grayson, the reporter has already returned." he said.

"Gene! I'm home." Jamie barged in the door. "Here are today's snapshots of the victim; maybe this one is a good story for the next edition, huh?"

Jamie, and his uncle, Gene, had so many different characteristics; Gene couldn't see himself in Jamie's personality. From the outside, they were physically different too. Jamie had a brown hair, a bit wavy but still neat. His skin was white, and his eyes were dark brown. You wouldn't know another face as calm as Jamie's, people often mistaken him as a shy guy, but actually, he's a cheerful one.

"Is this all you've got for me?" asked Gene confusedly.

"Yeah, it's enough right?" Jamie asked back.

"It's enough, but I haven't seen you take only a few photos until today." Gene asked with a disappointed tune.

"Look, Gene, I don't know, all these kind of works, it's a bit monotone you know? It gets boring, especially when I've done this for 6 years." Jamie explained.

Gene had a newspaper production company those days, he used to have only a newspaper stand, about 13 years ago, but now he got his own newspaper redaction. He called it "Hattersfield Crisis". His company is not so popular, but Gene could make a living from that. Yeah, the name of his company included the city's name, Hattersfield, a modern city, but it still kept many old things from the past. The newspaper redaction only had a few workers, only six people, including Jamie as the reporter.

Jamie took the job when he was 19, what made him fit for the reporter job and a part-time journalist, was his curiosity about causality chain of conditions. Sometimes, he wrote articles about things that had happened in the city too in his social media. Luckily, his uncle, Gene, had an understanding with him, that's why Jamie worked in Gene's company until now. Even though, doing the same job over and over again, especially for 6 years, that could make someone's bored.

"You know what? That's okay for now, we got another bigger story anyway, and why don't you just call it a day for today? But only for today, okay?" Gene replied.

"Well, sorry, Gene, guess I'm just not in my rhythm today." Jamie smiled and replied back. Jamie turned around and going through the door, but Gene stopped him and said "Why don't you check out your brother today?"

"Yeah, that's where I'm going." Jamie replied, opened the door, and went outside without looking back.

* * *

"Do you know the reason I called you today, Mr. Henson?" the sound of a deep voice from a young man. A young elegant figure was sitting in front of Mr. Henson. Mr. Henson was very unlucky that day. He had been working in Manta, Inc. for 5 years with a good record, but there's some kind of problem with him and his new boss, the guy that was sitting in front of him.

Manta, Inc. was a good company in that year. It produced variety of stationaries like pen, mechanical pencil, scissors, and the others. The CEO of company had just been elected; a younger person, Mr. Vester had replaced its former CEO, Mr. Roberts, who already took a pension. Mr. Vester had a bit skinny body, but still fit. His hair was jet black as the night sky. The fedora and the glasses he's wearing is an expensive one. Now, looking through his glasses is the worried Mr. Henson.

"I don't know, Sir, is there anything wrong?" answered Mr. Henson nervous.

"No, nothing's wrong actually, because I already found out who smuggled my products in the middle of the process, so yeah, nothing's wrong now." Mr. Vester answered calmly while clearly saw a tiny drop of sweat in Mr. Henson's forehead.

"Wow? You did? Who is it, Sir?" Mr. Henson tried to cover his tracks.

"Don't try to hide your face, Henson." a dark figure behind Henson suddenly spoke and started smoking.

Henson didn't realize that there were two people in the room. He didn't look back to see who it was, he already knew who it was. Henson knew exactly who had the voice like that, and he can already smelt the cigarette in the air coming from behind.

The guy behind is the vice president of the company itself, sitting in the sofa while raising his leg. He has a red hair and a thin beard. His eyes were very sharp, especially when looking at Mr. Henson.

"I'm sorry Mr. Remy Trenton; I don't know what you're…" Mr. Henson tried to answer, until it's interrupted when Remy walked and showed three photos directly to his face.

"Okay, now can you explain what's wrong with these photos?" Remy asked gently but still keeping the eyes fixed on Mr. Henson. There were three photos; the first one is Mr. Henson and some of the workers unloading the cargo from Manta, Inc. trucks. The second one was another truck with different logo company from the Manta, Inc. with the products being loaded into. The last photo showed the deal between Mr. Henson and an unknown person, you could see that there was money involved between the two people.

There was a very long silence in the office, and then Mr. Vester closed their dialogue with "So Mr. Henson, I'm really sorry but I can't risk my job here and of course if it's still going on, the company will have another loss, and I'm really sorry for saying this, but you're fired."

Mr. Henson accepted it, but he only nodded, and then went out of his office. After Mr. Henson had gone and already far from the office, Mr. Vester said to Remy," You're a bit cruel, dude, and don't be straightforward, especially if it's one of our employees. They must have a reason for doing all of these."

"First of all, you know I'm a ginger, maybe the reason of my cruelty, because I have no soul." Remy chuckled, and Mr. Vester followed because they both knew that's only a joke. But Remy continued, "But really, we have so much to learn in this company, we don't know its insides and there were already many culprits here before you're in charge. I don't know what Mr. Roberts was doing in his own company."

"Well okay, I'm sure we can improve this company with us in charge, but it seems that we have so much homework to be done" Mr. Vester answered with much hope. Then he asked Remy, "But I was wondering, how do you get these photos?"

"You already knew that Al, I am good at field work, especially a dirty work like these." Remy answered without any burden.

When they're chatting and chuckling, Jamie barged in without knocking, and then said hello to both of them. "Hey guys, what's up? And what's wrong with one of your guys out there, he seems pissed off when he comes out from this room?" Jamie asked while pointing at the door with his thumb. He didn't give Remy and Al Vester a chance to reply his greeting.

"Just as energetic as always, little Jamie, next time don't barge in like that, not many people here know who you are, and people will be confused why a young man like you dare to barge in without knocking to the president's office." Remy tried to explain to Jamie.

"Yeah, no one here knows if I had a foster brother." Al continued Remy's explanation. Albert Vester is called Mr. Vester in the company, but Remy and Jamie called him Al, a friendlier name. Jamie Stories and Albert Vester are foster brothers, but they kept it a secret in front of people that doesn't count as inner circle of theirs.

Remy could be trusted, since he was Al's trusted hand, and usually involved with Al's in personal work or business work. The three have strong connection, and they behaved like brothers. "Well, sorry, I guess, I don't mean to bring your reputations down, since you guys already higher-ups here." Jamie said sorry while still smiling and looking to both of them.

"Hehehe, it is okay dude, just knock first next time and act like an outsider." Remy answered.

"Yeah, and by the way, what are you doing here? Why so sudden?" Al continued and then asked Jamie.

"I just want to…" A telephone call rang in Al's office, Al picked it up, and then Al's secretary told Al via telephone that there was someone who wants to speak with him. His secretary connected the phone to Al and the caller. After Al spoke for a moment to his caller, his eyes turned serious, and when the call was finished, Al look at Jamie and Remy with sharp eyes and then said," It was one of Gene's employee, something happened in Gene's office."


End file.
